This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain much valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L. A. W. the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible
Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers.
The map this week is perhaps one of the best in New Jersey which can be taken by a New-Yorker without too long a journey before reaching the starting-point. It not only extends to Paterson, which is a good eighteen-mile ride, and, with the return trip, makes a good half-day run, but it extends to Pine Brook, twenty-nine miles altogether, which is the first stage on the tour from New York to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and thence on to Buffalo.
The rider should take the Fourteenth Street ferry from New York to Hoboken, and his first object then is to get to the Boulevard. The road to the Boulevard is direct from the ferry, with a sharp turn to the right a few minutes after leaving the ferry-house, where the railroad is crossed, and the rider then comes into the Boulevard. After a long gradual ascent, he should take the first prominent turn to the left, leaving the Boulevard on the right, and going northeast to the cemetery, still uphill. The road circles this, and keeping always to the left the rider comes into the Paterson Plank Road, crosses several tracks at Homestead Station, with the Scheutzen Park on the right, then runs across the salt meadows, and finally rides over the Hackensack River. There is but one fork before he reaches the outskirts of Rutherford, which is at Washington Grove. He should keep to the Paterson Plank Road, which is the turn to the left. The road from Homestead Station to the road-house at Washington Grove is macadamized and in reasonably good condition. From the Washington Grove road-house, between Rutherford and Carlstadt, the road is perfectly straight and level, but is in poorer condition, and somewhat sandy. As the rider passes out of Carlstadt he crosses the railroad track, runs a few hundred yards until the road takes a sharp curve to the right northward, almost to the Passaic River. Here he should turn sharply to the left and cross the Passaic. This is a somewhat difficult turn, and he should be careful not to keep on to the north towards Garfield Post-office. Crossing the river, he soon arrives at a fork, where he should turn to the right, the left-hand turn being Main Street, which, though the more direct route to Passaic, is not so good a road. This fork is reached just before entering Passaic.
Passing through Passaic, the run is direct to the cemetery on the Passaic River at the outskirts of Paterson. Keep to this road until you run into Market Street. At the bridge turn sharp left and pass through the city of Paterson on Market Street to its end. Then turn to the right up a short grade to the bridge that crosses the Passaic again. The rider should not cross the bridge, but should turn sharp to the left and follow the car tracks through West Paterson Station to Little Falls. This stretch of road is in fine condition, is macadamized and level. From Little Falls it is a one-mile run to Singac. Immediately on leaving Singac and crossing the track the rider comes to cross roads. He should keep on the main road, skirting around with the river on the right, over a hilly country, by a hotel, into Fairfield; or if he chooses, he may turn to the left just before reaching Fairfield into Pier Lane. But if he wishes to make a stop in Fairfield, he must keep on to the hotel in the centre of the town. This stretch of country is a rolling macadamized road in reasonably good condition. From Fairfield, or from the junction of the main road and Pier Lane, the road southward to Franklin Post-office is in poorer condition and clay, and is much more hilly. At the junction of the roads in Franklin the rider should inquire for Bloomfield Avenue, which is the direct road to Pine Brook. This is a sandy road, somewhat hilly, and it is necessary to take the side path. At Pine Brook he has made about thirty miles, and may stop either at the hotel just off the Bloomfield road about a mile before reaching the town or at the hotel in the centre of the town.
By examining the map it will be seen that the same trip may be made by riding up to 125th Street in New York, taking the Fort Lee ferry, and riding over the direct route from Fort Lee through Taylorsville on to Hackensack, and thence over a reasonably good straight road, crossing the Passaic, and meeting Market Street above the cemetery at the point where the Paterson Plank Road joins it. A good run would be to take this latter road, to leave Market Street in Paterson, and strike for the fair bicycle road indicated on the map, which runs nearly due south through South Paterson, leaving on the west, or right hand, Montclair Heights, Cedar Grove, Upper Montclair, and riding into Montclair through Watchung, where the train may be taken for New York. This is, of course, a somewhat hilly road.
Note.—Map of New York city asphalted streets in No. 809. Map of route from New York to Tarrytown in No. 810, New York to Stamford, Connecticut, in No. 811. New York to Staten Island in No. 812.